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IT Vendors Offer New Financing Options for Cash-Strapped Organizations
Cisco, Dell, HPE, and Nutanix have crafted payment deferrals, lower initial payments, and trade-in deals as short-term sweeteners for organizations that need new gear but whose budgets are pinched by COVID-19.
How Proactive Analytics Are Transforming Storage
Storage vendors are using techniques like logging data and AI-based predictive, proactive analytics as tools for improving storage health. In other words, it isn’t necessarily that the hardware itself has become dramatically more reliable (although the hardware may have improved, too), but rather that the management layer is able to provide prescriptive guidance through proactive analytics that can help keep hardware healthy.
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Zoom vs Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet: How Do They Compare?
Use of video conferencing and other workplace collaboration tools have hit record highs in recent weeks. Three of the most popular platforms being used right now are Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. This article compares and contrasts these 3 solutions.
Best Encryption Software for Business in 2020: BitLocker, FileVault, Guardium, and More
Today, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) using 128- and 256-bit key lengths, the successor to DES, is in common use worldwide. ZDNet's recommendations are based on major themes: Strength, flexibility of use, and multi-device and OS support.
Microsoft Windows Admin Center: How It Can Help You Manage Remote PCs and Servers
Microsoft's Windows Admin Center (WAC) replaces both the on-desktop Server Manager and the PC-hosted Remote Server Admin Tools. Since its launch, just over two years ago in April 2018, Microsoft has been adding new features and fine-tuning the platform. With the 1910.2 release, the author argues that there is very little you can't do with WAC, making it an ideal tool for times like these.
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US Coalition Forms to Protect Right to Pay with Cash
Made up of vendors such as Diebold, associations like the National ATM Council, and advocacy groups including The Consumer Federation of America, the new Consumer Choice in Payment Coalition (CCPC) says it will to advocate for the continued availability of cash as a payment option for consumers throughout the US. Top of its agenda is supporting passage of the Payment Choice Act of 2019, a bipartisan bill that would maintain nationwide acceptance of cash payments for consumer purchases of goods and services at brick-and-mortar retail outlets.
CFM Upgrades Analytic Platform
CFM, an Arizona-based integrated banking technology provider, has made upgrades to its iQ business intelligence platform. The platform gives FIs real-time data such as how much cash is needed in machines, if a machine was deployed properly or how tellers are using the machines. With this data and more provided by the platform, customers can make informed decisions on purchases, deployment and optimization of cash dispensers and recyclers.
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Amex Survey: Contactless Payments More Likely amid Coronavirus
New data from American Express predicts an upsurge in contactless payments for in-store, online or app-based purchases. In fact, 58% of consumers who have used contactless payments in the past say they are more likely to use them now than ever before, according to the 2020 American Express Digital Payments survey.
Alphabet’s Loon Gets Partner in AT&T to Extend Global Coverage
Alphabet-owned Loon will be able to respond more quickly and effectively to disasters worldwide thanks to a new partnership with AT&T. Under the deal, Loon has integrated its system with AT&T’s network. The deal is significant because Loon needs to hook up with local LTE operators where it delivers service and it often does so in times of disaster – when events like hurricanes wipe out the existing infrastructure.
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COVID-19 Puts Scams on the Rise at FIs
The most common scams related to COVID-19 prey on fears related to the quarantines or the lack of a cure or vaccine, according to some observers. Other COVID-19-related financial cons include sending fake alerts telling accountholders that their account is being suspended due to outbreak-related shutdowns or service changes.
Duration of Phishing Attacks Grows, Use of Banking Trojans Wanes
Banking trojans continued losing popularity in late 2019 and represented only 9 percent of malicious attachments. The reason behind it might be the expanding functionality of backdoors, which also enables them to steal financial data and replace instruments designed for harvesting banking data only, like banking trojans.
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Microsoft Dynamics 365: How You Can Use Big Data to Learn More About Your Customers
Customer Insights is part of Microsoft's Customer Data Platform where organizations can pull together data about their customers from multiple systems. Microsoft calls the process "map, match and merge"; you map fields in each data source to the canonical customer record fields in the Microsoft Common Data Model.
6 Video Marketing Tips for 2020
A new study on small business marketer behavior reveals an increased focus on video marketing and as well as using videos to get found on search. According to the study, 64% responded that video is the most effective form of online marketing content. And almost half of the respondents agreed that they must create videos in order to grow their business. This article provides 6 tips to help you bring your video marketing strategy to the fore.
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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design
Three Payment Trends Give an Edge to Community FIs
The author contends that there are three pandemic-related trends that community FIs should prepare for: 1) Migration from Debit to Credit; 2) Forward-Facing Risk Mitigation; and 3) Digital Payment Adoption.
Video Banking on the Rise During Covid-19 Pandemic
The use of video teller machines grew in 2019 as FIs sought to bridge the gap between branches and digital services, according to an RBR report covering 23 key global markets. RBR says that video teller machines are gaining greater traction during the Covid-19 pandemic as branches are forced to shut down and FIs look to provide services while maintaining social distancing.
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Firefox 76 Delivers New Password Security Features and Security Fixes
Mozilla has released Firefox 76, which comes with critical security fixes and new features related to Firefox Lockwise which is the browser’s password manager/generator that is also available as a standalone app for iOS and Android. users will be able to check whether any of the passwords they use are vulnerable (e.g., identical to a password that has been breached) and they will be alerted when their login and password is involved in a breach.
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How Contact Centers Can Evolve After the COVID-19 Crisis
The author states that when some semblance of post-pandemic normalcy returns, your first step should be to gather all of the key players together and hold an after-action review (AAR). An AAR can facilitate different conversations to move forward strategically. He suggests that there are 4 questions which must be answered during the AAR: 1) What were the intended results? (goals/objectives of the action); 2) What were the actual results? (goals/objectives met or not met); 3) What caused the results that we got?; and 4) What actions will we keep, what should be revised/improved, and what should be dumped?
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